Study Abroad

With the assistance of the Office of International Education, more than 50% of all Willamette students go abroad for part of their studies, usually during their Junior year.

Classical Studies majors who want to walk in the footsteps of the Ancient Romans may apply to the prestigious Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies (ICCS) and spend a semester in Rome,like two recent Willamette graduates. Another option for studying in Italy popular among our students is a semester abroad at John Cabot University, also in Rome.

Other Classical Studies majors from Willamette have studied in Vienna and Heidelberg.

Other semester-long programs include:

London, Galway, Perth, and Munich. London offers not only the British Museum, but also rich Roman remains and the chance to attend lectures and events offered, for example, by one of several Classics departments at London universities, such as King's College London.

The University of Western Australia in Perth (Australia) has a strong Classics Department with internationally renowned faculty.

During a Spring semester at the National University of Ireland in Galway, students could enjoy not only Ireland's beautiful countryside but also take their pick among many interesting courses offered by the Galway Classics Department.

For students with a background in German, a semester in Tübingen could be a very attractive option. Tübingen is a very pretty medieval town with a world-renowned university, founded in 1477. The university houses Departments of Classics, Classical Archaeology, and Pre-History and Medieval Archaeology. Faculty from the latter department has been co-directing (with the University of Cincinnati) excavations at Troy since the 1990s.

Summer programs

First of all, there is the popular "Willamette in Greece" post-session (see below).

Secondly, many Willamette students participate in archaeological excavations and field schools during the summer. In recent years, three Willamette students have participated in the excavations of the Athenian Agora, the ancient marketplace of Athens, run by the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. Another student excavated a Roman-era town named Troia in Portugal; many more have accompanied our three archaeologists, Professors Scott Pike, David McCreery, and Ann Nicgorski, to excavations in Italy, Jordan, on Crete, and, most recently, in Scotland at the Ness of Brodgar, a scenic UNESCO world heritage site. Willamette University's Center of Ancient Studies and Archaeology supports two students per year with generous grants to attend archaeological field schools abroad.

Finally, outstanding Classics majors may also apply for a Lionel Pearson Fellowship awarded by the American Philological Association to spend a year of post-baccalaureate studies in Classics at a British university of the student's choice.

Willamette in Greece

(or, in Cataloguese, IDS 351* (W) Culture of Ancient Greece)

This writing-centered post-session course, open to non-Classics Majors as well, is a 4-week post-session program that centers on a field study in the museums and important historical/cultural sites throughout the mainland of Greece and the Mediterranean islands of Aegina and Crete. The one-credit course explores the origins of Western rhetoric through the exploration of archaeological ruins, the readings of Pericles, Lysias, and Isocrates, and the visualization of changes in Greek art, architecture, and lifestyle. For further information, please see the Willamette in Greece website or contact Prof. Jeanne Clark or Prof. Catherine Collins.